I was ho-hum about O Brother, but mostly that was due to Clooney's mugging performance. The Homeric allusions were heavy handed, I thought.

The best on-line reference I could find for movies only goes back to 2001, and seems to include only US releases. So I'll give my American-released top 10 of the 21st century, so to speak. These are my favorite films, the ones I enjoyed most. Note that there might be foreign films that found their way to US releases.

10. The Good Thief. Maybe not that great in absolute terms, but a remake they at least didn't completely fuck up. The original is J-P Melville's flawless Bob le Flambeur.

9. 24 Hour Party People. Not likely to make many other top 10 lists, admittedly, but I'm a big fan of Joy Division, Shaun Ryder, and even Steve Coogan.

8. End of the Century. Comprehensive and definitive Ramones documentary. Enough said.

By the way, I include documentaries here. Don't see why not.

7. Twilight Samurai. Compelling story of an aging samurai forced to into an immoral action. Beautifully shot.

6. Audition. First of 2 Takashi Miike films on my list. For my money, he's done the most interesting work of anyone I've consistently paid attention to over the last 10 years. This movie completely shocked the hell out of me when I saw it the first time.

5. Kill Bill Vol. 2. I loved both installments; I chose vol. 2 because of the totally awesome Pei Mai.

4. Bukowski: Born into This. I don't really know what to say except it's Bukowski.

3. Napoleon Dynamite. Tina, come get your ham!

2. Happiness of the Katakuris. Miike, again. A serial killer/sitcom/musical that makes perfect sense-- again, right up to the closing sequence. My main complaint about Miike is he doesn't know how to end his movies.

1. In the Realms of the Unreal. Once you get past the inital cutesy style of the director, this is a totally engrossing examination of Henry Darger. Amazing story; heartbreaking.

Honorable Mention: Sexy Beast; Spirited Away; School of Rock; Who the #%&% is Jackson Pollack?; and the inimitable Hey is Dee Dee Home?.

Not that my word means anything, but There Will Be Blood was a great film this year, a real tour-de-force that I think fans of No Country, or at least appreciators of that film, will find a lot to chew on in.They share a similar fatalism - I mean, the whole point in No Country is that "you can't stop what's coming", and the title of TWBB says it all, right there. I think they both capture the zeitgeist of our current disillusionment, as a country, with things internal and abroad.

Michael Clayton was pretty satisfying, for fans of '70s movies like All the President's Men or The Parallax View.

Saw Cloverfield, and you're right that it is just a stupid monster movie, typical dumb characters, gimmicky delivery and cheesy monster effects - you can debate how much of that is on purpose - but what really got me, at first, was the fear, which was palpable and charged in a way most horror films can't approach, solely due to the exploitation of 9-11 imagery. Too soon? I dunno. Maybe if the rest of the movie hadn't sucked I would've cared.

It's a hot night. The mind races. You think about your knife; the only friend who hasn't betrayed you, the only friend who won't be dead by sun up. Sleep tight, mates, in your quilted Chambray nightshirts.

Interesting list, Pens. Have to admit I haven't seen most of those, but that's to be expected. I was mulling over my own list last night and was thinking about the Kill Bills, which I think have to be considered together, since the studio split them, not QT. Nappy Dynamite didn't even cross my mind, but maybe it should, for sheer watchability: any flick I can watch as often as that without tiring of it deserves some consideration. The Ramones docu is a great idea too.

Haven't seen either. The family saw Nat'l treasure over X-mas and everyone liked it. Don't get me wrong, we don't have deep philosophical conversations about the mood, music or directing.

The BV movie rating systems is less complex than Siskel and Ebert( I know one of them has been dead for 10-15 years). The BV scale is either + or -. + = entertaining and - = not entertaining. Piecing together events in a movie is OK, but if I have to think any more than that, then it is -. If I have to figure out the meaning or interpret anything it gets a --.

I watched Wayn's World on one of the HD channels the other night. BV rating = +. Saw a little bit of A few Good Men last night. Rating = + I can't think of any - rated movies I have seen recently, becasue I don't generally watch them.

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Looks like you've been missing a lot of work lately. I wouldn't say I've been *missing* it, Bob.